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LAST-MINUTE WRENCH FOR PEBBLE MINE: Free-market groups are pushing back strongly after Donald Trump Jr., at the last minute, threw a wrench in the Pebble Mine’s years-long path to approval by staking out opposition.
“I am disappointed to see Donald Trump, Jr. endorse the illegitimate and thoroughly discredited Obama EPA position on the Pebble Mine, rather than the conclusion of one of the most exhaustive Environmental Impact Statements ever undertaken,” said Myron Ebell, energy and environment director for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and former Trump EPA transition team head.
Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at CEI, argued in a blog post that Trump Jr. didn’t identify “any specific reasons” to question an Army Corps environmental analysis released last month finding no serious harms from the project, a large proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. It would have been “more appropriate” for the president’s son to weigh in as that analysis was under review, he said, rather than “trying to pressure the administration outside this process.”
And in a blog post Thursday, Mike Palicz, Americans for Tax Reform’s federal affairs manager for energy, called on Trump to ignore opposition to the project from “radical environmentalists,” saying any “lingering” claims that the mine would hurt the region’s salmon population are “without merit.”
Why are conservative groups so up in arms? Because President Trump now appears likely to weigh in directly on the project, just as it’s headed toward final approval. The Army Corps’ environmental review had cleared the way for the project’s approval by the end of the year.
“I don’t know the argument yet, but I would certainly listen to both sides,” Trump said Wednesday when asked about his son’s opposition during a White House press briefing. “My son has some very strong opinions, and he is very much of an environmentalist.”
He also said he was receiving a briefing on the Pebble Mine project “sometime over the next 48 hours.”
The Trump administration has flip flopped on Pebble Mine before: Remember back in 2017, former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt opened the door for the project to get permitted, removing a veto from the Obama EPA. But less than a year later, Pruitt reversed course and halted the approval process for the mine, saying projects in the region “likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there.”
Then, the EPA, under Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s leadership, walked back Pruitt’s decision, allowing the mine to apply for an Army Corps permit. It’s worth noting, however, that Wheeler has recused himself from making any decisions on Pebble Mine because he previously worked for the law firm representing the project.
Presumably, Trump could direct the EPA to again block the project, if he ultimately decides he agrees with his son.
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THE OPPOSITE OF DRILL, BABY, DRILL: Drilling activity was down all over the world last month despite some recovery in oil demand.
There were 1,030 active rigs worldwide in July, according to the latest Baker Hughes data out Friday, compared to 1,073 in June. The July total is down from 2,238 the same month a year ago.
The average U.S. rig count also fell last month to 255 from 274 in June and 955 a year ago.
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY WON’T LAY OFF US WORKERS AFTER ALL: “We were wrong in not fully understanding the impact on our employees, especially during the pandemic,” said Jeff Lyash, TVA’s CEO, in a statement Thursday. The conciliatory statement came after Lyash and interim board Chairman John Ryder met with Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, and Pat Cipollone, White House counsel.
Trump cracked down on TVA on Monday, removing two members of the public power company’s federally appointed board, including its chair. He slammed TVA for a decision to fire around 100 U.S. technology workers and outsource those jobs.
TVA said Thursday it was abandoning those plans. Ryder, in a statement, said he and Lyash told the White House that the company’s restructuring process was “faulty.”
READING INTO PEABODY’S WRITE-DOWN OF LARGEST US COAL MINE: The recent decision by Peabody Energy, the biggest U.S. coal producer, to write-down the value of the country’s largest coal mine reflects the persistent struggles of the industry, according to a new analysis Friday.
Peabody this month slashed the value of its North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin by $1.42 billion.
The company’s decision came three years after Peabody emerged from bankruptcy, shedding $5 billion of its $10.1 billion debt load.
Peabody’s write-down “is simply a reflection of the new reality in U.S. coal-mining that has been evident almost since the moment the company came out of bankruptcy,” said Seth Feaster, a data analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The coal industry “continues to be battered by rapid structural decline” driven by low natural gas prices, the low and falling cost of building wind and solar, and initiatives by utilities and other companies to cut emissions.
This year, utilities are on pace to reduce their consumption of coal to 377 million tons, a 41% decrease over two years, while exports of thermal coal used for electricity could fall to 25 million tons, a 50% drop over the same period, according to the latest short-term forecast from the Energy Information Administration.
“The U.S. thermal coal market has a vast oversupply of product chasing fewer and fewer customers,” Feaster said.
INTERIOR PROPOSES REVISIONS TO OIL AND GAS ROYALTIES RULE: The Interior Department proposed a rule Friday to amend an Obama-era rule for assessing fees on coal, oil, and natural gas extracted on federal lands.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the changes to the Valuation Rule would “remove unnecessary and burdensome regulations for domestic energy production.”
It comes after a federal judge last year struck down Interior’s repeal of the Obama administration’s rule, designed to prevent mining and drilling companies from underpaying royalties owed to the federal government.
The judge said the Trump administration failed to provide sufficient justification for ditching the rule, citing “serious violations” of the Administrative Procedures Act.
The Obama administration argued its 2016 rule would close a loophole that let companies miscalculate royalty payments when mining on public land. The Trump administration countered the rule would increase costs for companies, and could decrease exploration and production on federal lands.
DEMOCRATS SEEK LIST OF FAST-TRACKED INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS: More than 50 Democrats in both chambers are demanding the Trump administration make public lists of infrastructure activities federal agencies are considering expediting under a pandemic-related executive order.
That order, which Trump signed in early June, would allow federal agencies to waive environmental reviews to allow for infrastructure projects to be built more quickly during the downturn. The White House has said the lists of projects federal agencies are considering expediting under the order aren’t public.
“By keeping these reports from the public, this administration is concealing its own response to the economic crisis brought on by the COVID pandemic,” wrote the Democrats, led by top Senate Environment Committee Democrat Tom Carper, House Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, and House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, in a Thursday letter to White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Mary Neumayr.
SENATE CLEANS OUT THE PIPES: The Senate passed legislation reauthorizing government pipeline safety programs, dubbed the PIPES Act, Thursday night by unanimous consent.
The bill re-ups pipeline safety programs governed by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. It contains a provision authored by Democratic Sen. Tom Udall requiring natural gas operators to deploy the latest technology to prevent and detect methane leaks. It also requires operators to create a plan to minimize methane leaks.
The American Petroleum Institute, which runs a voluntary program of oil and gas companies working to detect and repair methane leaks, praised the legislation for taking “important steps to make pipelines safer for surrounding communities and the environment.”
The House is still considering its version of the pipeline safety bill.
POWER OUTAGES HIT NEW YORK CITY: Roughly 40,000 people were without power Friday morning after Con Edison, a New York utility, experienced an outage in Manhattan around 5 a.m. A separate outage was reported in Queens. Some customers reported that their electricity was back on just 20 minutes after the outage began, but others could be in the dark for days.
The company said it was investigating the problem.
The Rundown
Reuters Problems plagued C02 capture project before shutdown: DOE document
Wall Street Journal Coronavirus shutdowns shift energy costs to individuals
Reuters Cash-strapped US biofuel industry cuts lobbying even as Iowa looms large in election
Calendar
MONDAY | AUG 10
The Senate is in session. The House is out.
